Hasta La Gadget!

South Korean wireless carrier SK Telecom has officially begun the commercial rollout of its Multi Carrier (MC) network. The technology, which will be available in twenty-three cities by the close of 2012, will allow equipped devices to seamlessly wander between the 800MHz and 1.8GHz LTE frequencies (while also adding 20MHz of uplink/downlink spectrum). Aside from improving throughput and coverage within the country, SK hopes the addition of the 1.8GHz frequency to its handsets’ repertoire will provide customers with a better LTE roaming experience when abroad — a handful of Asian and European nations have settled on 1.8GHz as their Long Term Evolution band of choice. New devices, with compatible radios, will be necessary to leverage the Multi Carrier goodness, although the carrier did note that Samsung’s ever-popular Galaxy S III would support the hotness. We would like to raise our glass to SK Telecom and offer a toast to the bright future of multi-band high-speed wireless networks. Cheers!

SK Telecom utilizing Multi Carrier technology to improve LTE service, roaming originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jul 2012 17:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If all those bells and whistles packed inside that famed Galaxy S III are a wee bit much for you, then perhaps you might be interested in this Sammy-branded GT-B5330 and all of its relatively modest qualities. For starters, the device is bound to be a delight to those who love the feel of physical QWERTY keys, with Sammy Hub also reporting that it’s sporting an unpretentious QVGA, 320 x 240 screen and a bearable 850MHz processor — all while being powered by a Samsung flavor of Ice Cream Sandwich. As is usually the case with these early appearances, though, mum’s the word on when this GT-B5330 will make its official debut. That said, something tells us this won’t be the last time we’ll be seeing this guy show off its typing attributes.

Samsung’s GT-B5330 shows up in leaked photos, flaunts its QWERTY traits originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jul 2012 15:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As Nokia starts to roll out its latest slice of Symbian-powered hardware across Europe, the manufacturer has bundled up some upbeat usage statistics for its developers. It’s a mixture of global clout, big user numbers and several mobile platforms, with Nokia declaring support from 145 operators, across 52 different markets. Its app hub, Nokia Store, is now available in over 190 countries, while there’s now over 100,000 “content items” for its simpler Series 40 handsets, with those devices accounting for 42 percent of the last billion items downloaded. The Nokia Store itself has now served over five billion downloads across all of its mobile OS’. There’s also some good news for its most recent addition, Windows Phone, which has already caught up with Nokia’s own selection with over 100,000 apps to choose from. Over 20,000 Lumia phones have been offered to developers in tandem with Microsoft’s Windows Phone seeding program and, according to the beleaguered phone maker, the ecosystem is now “starting to thrive” — which is good news, considering Symbian’s lingering death sentence. Nokia also took the opportunity to highlight its exclusive third-party app offerings from the likes of CNN, ESPN and Sesame Street — although the jewels of the Lumia series’ app provision arguably remain the in-house likes of Nokia Maps and Mix Radio.

Nokia Store has 120,000 apps, over 120 million users, foggy future originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jul 2012 10:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The 4.5-inch Vega LTE is not eight months old and the 4.8-inch Vega Racer 2 is still properly wet behind the years. But, the flow of progress abides by no calendars, so welcome the Pantech Vega S5 to the world. It steps up to a full 5-inch IPS LCD with a 720p resolution in a phone that, thanks to a “zero bezel” design, actually has a smaller footprint than the Samsung Galaxy S III. There’s a whopping 13 megapixel shooter in there with zero lag, a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, 16GB of internal storage and a 2,100 mAh battery that’s said to deliver 11 hours of talk time. If that sounds like a good combination indeed it could be, but don’t spend too much pining — this handset is destined only for Korean shores.

Pantech Vega S5 does Android 4.0 on a 5-inch LCD, facemask not included originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jul 2012 07:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In case you haven’t heard, Sprint is now stocking its shelves with the Samsug Galaxy S III. Just as it promised, the Now Network is offering both 16 and 32GB versions of the handset online and through telesales, for $200 and $250, respectively. If you take the “Now” slogan to heart, however, you’ll have to settle for the smaller option, Sprint’s retail locations won’t have the 32GB model on hand. The rest of you? Skip on down to the source link below to order up.

PSA: Samsung Galaxy S III now available in Sprint stores originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Jul 2012 15:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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